The basic problem of putting women into combat is that, because they are far weaker than men along every dimension of athletic performance, it will result in mortality disproportionate to their numbers. The ratio of rates of casualty to rates of combat participation will be much worse for women than for men. Women in combat units will likewise suffer disproportionate rates of all the other hazards of military life: wounds, disease, injuries, and so forth.

It is for this same reason that we don’t allow athletic competition between men and women: the women would lose badly, every single time, and so would suffer grievously (not to mention wasting everyone’s time) in a quest for success over male competitors that the brute facts of biology render hopeless in principle, and ab initio. Read More »

WRITING at The Remnant, Chris Ferrara theorizes that Pope Benedict XVI resigned his throne because he no longer had the strength to fight the Church’s enemies from within. Ferrara writes:

[T]he Pope has abdicated because he perceives that he is simply unable to mitigate any further the ecclesial chaos John Paul “the Great” left behind after the vast crowds had dispersed and their rowdy cheers of “Santo Subito” had faded away. I believe—or at least I want to believe—that Benedict sees as the only hope for an ecclesial restoration the elevation of a younger, fitter conservative to the Throne of Peter. I also believe that Benedict has concluded that if he were to remain in office for several years to come, something disastrous would happen that a more vigorous successor, if elected now, might be able to avert—about which more in a moment.